Birmingham-based British writing master, stonecutter, letter designer, typefounder and printer (1706-1775). Designer of transitional typefaces. In 1757, he created his famous serif typefaces, which were called transitional as they were somewhat between the old style typefaces of William Caslon and the modern types of Bodoni and Didot. He increased the thick-thin contrast over that found in Caslon's types, making the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position. The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular. In 1757, Baskerville published his first work, a collection of Virgil, which was followed by some fifty other classics. In 1758, he was appointed printer to the Cambridge University Press. It was there in 1763 he published his master work, a folio Bible, which was printed using his own typeface, ink, and paper. The modern types became more popular than Baskerville, and people had to wait until 1917 when Bruce Rogers revived Baskerville's type for the Harvard University Press, followed by Stanley Morison's revival in 1924 for the British Monotype Company. Linotype introduced it in 1931.

In modern times, we find the 1978 rendering of ITC New Baskerville by Matthew Carter and John Quaranda. Linotype offers 38 Baskerville typefaces. URW Baskerville has 51 styles.